Odds of deployment as a Paralegal Specialist?

February 23rd, 2012, 02:06 PM

I'm curious as to the odds of deployment and my chances of experiencing combat. Please no one start hating and getting all defensive. It is just a simple question. I am stationed at HQ now for the TXARNG in Austin. I do not yet know my unit however. Would that help in determining the odds of deployment? thank you for your help.

I'm curious as to the odds of deployment and my chances of experiencing combat. Please no one start hating and getting all defensive. It is just a simple question. I am stationed at HQ now for the TXARNG in Austin. I do not yet know my unit however. Would that help in determining the odds of deployment? thank you for your help.

As for deployment it is just as likely as with any job. It all depends on when and if your unit is going. There are individual deployment oppurtunities available for Paralegals that you can apply for, these positions are managed internally by the JAG Corps.

As far as combat operations during the deployment, that chance is slim to none. Generally, you never leave the wire. There are some of us that were engaged in processing foreign claims that spent a significant amount of time in a forward enviroment, but that is mainly for senior paralegals.

If you enjoy legal work, it can be a great job. I will caution you that this MOS in a Battalion sized unit is not an accurate representation of what we do. If you end up getting assigned to a Battalion (as opposed to a Brigade or Division), it can (will) ****.

Good segue topic for this article that I read this week that the OP can calculate with his odds. But seriously, it all depends if your unit will be slated for rotation and if there is a need if you can possibly volunteer for a deployment.

The Army National Guard must remain trained, equipped and ready even as combat operations wind down and budgets tighten, the component’s top officer said.

“We’re in a period of transition,” said Lt. Gen. William Ingram, director of the Army Guard. “The one thing I don’t want to see hap­pen is we go back to the old strate­gic reserve where we get put on the shelf. We’ve become an opera­tional force, we’ve answered every call we’ve gotten in the last 10 years.” As of Feb. 16, 35,216 Guard sol­diers were mobilized, with about 23,697 of them deployed — more than 12,000 in Afghanistan, and the remaining 11,519 at mobiliza­tion or demobilization stations across the U.S.

Another 30,450 Guard soldiers had been alerted for possible mobilization.

More than 500,000 Guard sol­diers have been mobilized since Sept. 11, 2001.

More than half of the Guard’s 360,000 soldiers are combat veter­ans.

And the Guard’s 28 brigade com­bat teams have participated in 44 deployment rotations.

“Right now we’re probably the best trained, best equipped and most experienced force in our 375­year history,” Ingram said. “We’ve been a full partner with the active Army for the last 10 years.” It’s too early to tell how looming budget cuts might affect the Army Guard, Ingram said.

At least for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Army Guard will stay at an authorized end strength of 358,200 soldiers, Ingram said.

The Guard also is waiting for the Army to make decisions about the design and organiza­tion of its brigade combat teams, he said. The Army is considering adding a maneuver battalion to its infantry, airborne and heavy BCTs.

“They’re talking about taking down some BCTs, adding a third maneuver battalion,” he said. “Whatever the Army does, our intent is to do the same thing. We want a BCT in either [component] to look alike.” Overall, Ingram said he doesn’t anticipate significant force struc­ture changes in the Army Guard.

The Guard is, however, going to have to be more efficient and live within the upcoming budget con­straints, Ingram said.

“The amount of money coming into the Army is going to be less. It’s going to buy less than it bought in the past,” he said. “We’re not going to have all the things we’ve had for the last 10 years, and as the war fight draws down and [overseas contingency operations] funding gets smaller and smaller, obviously we’ll have less people deployed and there’ll be less money for train-up to go to the war fight.” However, soldiers understand those changes, Ingram said.

“We’re all going to bite the bullet a little bit, and we’ll have to work our way through lean budget times. But we still need to main­tain an operational force,” he said. “The country’s invested a tremen­dous amount of money in the Army National Guard in the last 10 years and we want to make sure the country gets a return on its investment.” This is especially critical because the Guard also plays a key role in the homeland response to natural or man-made disasters, Ingram said.

Some of the options Ingram and other Army leaders are looking at to ensure the Guard remains trained and ready include adding more rotations for Guard BCTs in the training schedule at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and the Joint Readi­ness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.

“We would definitely want to participate at the combat training centers,” Ingram said. “You can build a training event that includes a lot of enablers, as well, on the front and the back end of a combat training center rotation so it trains more than just a BCT.” The Guard will continue to con­duct missions in Kosovo, the Horn of Africa, the Sinai and Guan­tanamo Bay, Cuba, Ingram said. The Guard also has state partner­ships with various countries around the world, including 17 partnerships in Europe alone, he said.

“Right now, today, we have sol­diers in more than 70 countries around the world,” he said. “It would be very easy to rotate a Guard BCT or any other type of unit to [a combatant command] and use it for theater engage­ments in their area of operations.” Ingram said his priorities have not changed since his days as a lieutenant.

“Man, equip and train, and have units at a readiness level as high as they can be for the way we’re resourced,” he said. “We can only be as ready as resources allow, but we’ll be as efficient as we can pos­sibly be.” It is critical for the Guard to remain the operational force it has become after 10 years of war, he said.

“That’s why the soldiers in our ranks today are here,” he said. “They want the opportunity to do something. We want to continue to give them the opportunity to serve. Our soldiers can perform, and they’ve been proving that for the last 10 years. Pre-9/11, we had to prove we were good enough to do what we were asked to do. Now, nobody can say we’re not capable of doing the mission.” □